


One Night Only

by amyfortuna



Category: Outcast - Rosemary Sutcliff
Genre: Afterlife, Cuddling & Snuggling, Ghosts, M/M, Temporary Resurrection, Trick or Treat 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-27 15:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5053678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beric receives a completely unexpected gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Night Only

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fawatson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fawatson/gifts).



The wind was whistling harsh along the edges of the marshland now; rising and rising at night like the sound of the sighing of the gods, then dying and dying away until the grasses no longer whispered under the dull and leaden night skies. The last geese were flying overhead, in their arrowhead formations; Beric watched them in the twilight, speeding down the curves of the errant breezes high above, calling out their familiar honking cries to each other. 

This was _home_ , here with Justinius, in this wet corner of Britain. It was here he could come back to at night with a surety of knowledge that he would never be cast out, but always welcomed. Justinius was always very loving with him, calling him _my son_ with heartfelt happiness, and the warmth in his measured tones was like a blanket drawn over the shoulders. 

The nights were drawing in closer now, and Beric was staring up at a vivid sunset, though nowhere near as bold and fiery as that sunset a year ago which had preceded the great storm. Anything beautiful always made him think of Jason, and it was so now: the dying bright orange and pink flames of clouds, the yellow bursting bright ball of the sun, just sliding down over the horizon, the wash of darker blues and purples amongst the sky-lit clouds, heavy with potential rain, but passing through. 

For a moment he dreamed of Jason, his slight frame standing beside him with an arm around his waist; they two both staring up at the same sunset with awe, for different reasons. Beric would have, then, stared upward as he did now, in wonder at such beauty, but Jason would be appraising it with an artist's keen eye, weighing the colours against each other, seeking to balance the light and the dark against each other, drawing in the geese, faint and far away now, as mere black specks against the sunset. 

He was so lost in the dream that the voice came as no surprise, though his whole body shuddered and went cold at the sound of it. 

"How the wind sighs!" Jason said, and then there was a warm body close to his, and a slender artist's hand touched his own, like their hands had touched in a sweet memory of a dark time. "I had forgotten what it was like to feel the bite of it." Beric glanced to his left, and there Jason was, haler and heartier than Beric had ever seen him in life, with laughing eyes, tossing back the locks of hair that had drifted into his face.

Beric's heart clenched. "How?" he managed to breathe out. "Are you spirit or flesh? How came you here?"

Jason looked up at him, eyes wide and innocent, only goodness shining from him. "It was a gift," he said. "Beric, I am dead and there is no mending that. But I was given a chance to come back to the land of the living for one night, sunset to sunrise, and I chose to come where my heart dwells." He let out a quiet laugh. "Which is clearly wherever you happen to be." He looked up at the sky. "It was a fair sunset, Beric, and it is nearly dying." 

Beric took Jason's hand in his own and did not relinquish his hold as they walked together back to the house. 

Justinius' eyes went wide initially as he looked at Jason, but then he looked on Beric's shining face and smiled slowly. There was something of sadness in the smile, and Justinius was very careful to avoid touching Jason. Cordaella felt no such compunction, however, and accepted his presence with cheerful equanimity, patting him on the shoulder and offering him new bread with butter. 

Jason accepted the food and ate it delicately, in a way that Beric had never seen him do before, like one who was not starving, but had not tasted a particularly delicacy for a very long while and wanted to savour the experience. Canog and her year-old pup came up to them, wagging their tails happily, and Beric patted them both on the head. Jason knelt down and stroked the pup tenderly, eyes half-closed as though the feel of her fur was an indulgence. It was as Jason petted the puppy that Justinius drew Beric aside. 

"He is welcome, your friend," Justinius said. There was caution in his eyes and after a moment he went on. "Did he explain his purpose?" 

"He said it was a gift, for one night only," Beric answered, and some of the worry cleared from Justinius' face. 

"That is well," Justinius said. "But be cautious, my son, for it is only one night." He sighed. "My wife came to visit me even so, appearing in my bed in the long twilight of an autumn many years past. She knew nothing of our son, and to be fair, I asked only a few questions of her. For she was very beautiful and much-missed, and I..." He trailed off, glancing sadly away from Beric to look at the window and the blackness outside. 

"I understand," Beric said. 

\----

Beric was weary, though Jason's presence sent a warmth through him that no tiredness could defeat. They had not needed to speak much since the rest of the household had gone their beds. Justinius had disappeared into his bedroom at one point and returned, frowning over a set of very dry paints.

"They were my wife's," he said, handing them to Jason, "but little-used. Perhaps you will find some joy in them." 

Jason's smile was like the flash of a bird's wings, swift and graceful. He had taken the paints, wetted them, and was currently painting on the wooden wall of the main room. Beric lay back and watched him, the litheness of his body, the swift graceful motions of his arms sweeping to and fro with the bright colours. The dogs were curled up against Beric, sleeping soundly, now and again making small noises as though they were dreaming of the hunt. 

A bright sunset was appearing on the wall of the room and Beric smiled to see it. Below the fiery sky, the misty marsh lay sprawled out, birds sketched in here and there, reeds and grasses grown tall and yellow. Off to one side, two figures stood together, watching the sunset in silhouette, their hands just touching. 

"I have longed for this," Beric found himself saying at last. "I wished to see you paint, to see you happy." Jason turned with a blinding smile on his face, tossing his hair back over his shoulders. Beric's voice grew wistful. "I wished so much for you that was denied." 

Setting the paints down carefully, Jason walked over to where Beric lay and curled down next to him, snuggled close, the way they had on cold nights in harbour long ago. Beric put an arm around him. Jason was warm where they were pressed together, and there was a fond smile on his face. 

"Do not worry for me," Jason said. "I am warm and well. I am at peace. All the suffering I felt is dim in my mind in a way that it is not in yours. To come back through the veil, even for only one night, is to come back with a sense of one's own small place in the world. What is done is done. There is no changing it. My story is written, and I am glad - glad, Beric! - that in my sufferings you were there."

"I too am glad," Beric murmured softly, and Jason pressed his lips against Beric's forehead. They lay together in silence for some time. 

The blackness outside was just beginning to turn to grey when Beric fell asleep, with Jason still curled up against him, warm and cozy. The dawn light spilled in through the window on him, and he started awake. 

Jason was gone, and for a moment Beric looked wildly around, wondering if it had been a dream and no more. 

And yet, there on the wall, a bright fresco of a sunset had been painted, and the colours of it outshone the dawn.


End file.
